Book Review: The Robber of Memories

I don't know how many times I've been having a terrible day and a little break with a great book has saved me. Throwing yourself into a fantasy world can make you forget your troubles, but sometimes it's the non-fiction books that really help, showing you that another place, another real place, has it much harder. It makes you appreciate the fact that you get to sit in Starbucks and read for an hour, even if you have to leave eventually.

The Robber of Memories: A River Journey Through Colombia by Michael Jacobs

I'm a big fan of Tom Feiling so I wasn't really looking for a new perspective on one of my favourite countries. I found the novel in the stock room of Granta, the publishers of the book, whilst I was doing an internship. But The Robber of Memories is an immensely fascinating and emotional read, so it's no wonder that it was a runner-up for Dolman's Travel Book of the year, and i'm so glad I didn't get blindsided by amazing Tom.

Jacob's intertwines a physically exerting exploratory journey down the Magdalena with the mystifying history of Gabriel Garcia Marquez- which is absolutely fascinating if you've previously fallen in love with One Hundred Years of Solitude. Probably the only romantic story I have to tell is the fact that my boyfriend bought me a copy from a old bookstore, with absolutely no hints dropped from me. Most interesting during the book though is not the name-dropping of the prolific writer but Jacob's incorporation of his own struggles with parents with alzheimers with the group of townships he meets on the river. I'm sure that it's not just me that can relate to these struggles.

His writing is gorgeous but I do have a bone to pick. My need to go to Colombia has reached it's absolute peak and i'm in desperate need of £700 for a ticket. Damn you Jacobs!

Oh and also.. This week I made...

Raspberry cream and white chocolate ganache macaroons and cinnamon Christmas cookies (because it's never too early!)

Recipe Book Review: Goo Goo for Gü

So, since Christmas is coming, and i'm thinking about what books i can resist buying to ask for for
Christmas, i thought i'd review my present from last year and some of the recipes that have really turned out well.

Gü: Chocolate Cookbook
About 5 years ago i started buying these chocolate pots from the supermarket. Rich, gooey and decadent, they were only teeny things but they made the most amazing desert when i had too busy a week to bake.
Nowadays, Gü have a range of puddings, tarts and soufflés to buy, and have brought out a recipe book so that we can have a go ourselves!
Before i get to the recipes, something has to be said for the chapter on Chocolatey Basics. It's no fun when recipes are really long, but things like choux pastry, chantilly cream and chocolate custard can be really technical. The cookbook separates these techniques from the recipes so if you know them you can push straight through and if you don't you can really get stuck in to a proper explanation.

My favourites are the white chocolate eton mess, pain au chocolate bread and butter pudding, chocolate madeleines, Viennese biscuits and chocolate eclairs.

Eclairs are ridiculously intimidating- the pastry is supposed to be one of the most difficult and the threat of curdled custard makes me nervous! But i was suitably impressed. The recipe went down without a hitch, which i really didn't expect. Although i would recommend that you resist eating them until the chocolate ganache is actually set because i did make a massive mess.

The stand out dish for me was probably the most simple: hot chocolate. I'm not a fan of the jars of ready mixed hot chocolate that you throw in a mug with water like tea: not sweet or decadent enough. My favourite comes from Carluccios. Every Christmas me, my sister and my mum would go off to Bluewater shopping centre together to get presents, and end up there for a rich, thick cup there before heading home. It is literally like melted chocolate. Gü's recipe for 'thick hot chocolate' simply describes heating half cream with half milk, and whisking it through with 2/3 dark chocolate and 1/3 milk. The product is beyond heavenly- i haven't even tried the other flavours, it is so easy and so delicious!

By all means, there are thinks i don't like about the book- the savoury dishes just don't appeal to me at all. I'm a chocolate addict so i want to see chocolate in it's rightful place, which is not in a stew or with fish. Nevertheless, there's no denying that the portion of the book that is for sweet dishes is more than enough to satisfy me. So, i can forgive them. And what to get for Christmas this year? I'm thinking Gino's Italian Escape (although i'm not sure if it's because of his hotness or his cooking) or Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food (definitely his cooking).

October's obsessions.

Since i've been working a lot, my baking and reading for pleasure has had to slow down a little bit. But luckily, the career i'm pursuing includes surrounding myself with a massive amount of books and there are plenty of bakeries in London!

ALBION in Shoreditch is one of those really lush looking cafes that sell organic oils and expensive looking tea. But beyond the slightly out of my price range produce there are some amazing, decently priced cakes.

This macaroon was £1.70 and pretty much the size of my head. Unlike with most, it wasn't full of simple raspberry jam- some kind of curd which was absolutely delicious.

In terms of reading, i've been working at different book publishers, and have had to read some really great novels. In particular, one of the latest Kathy Reichs novels. Reichs is a forensic anthropologist in Canada who uses her real life to inform her character, Tempe Brennan, who, in each novel, investigates and fights for the justice of the dead long forgotten by the authorities. The novels can be incredibly explicit- so you'll need a strong stomach- but beyond that, Reichs has created not just a technically precise career for her character, but an endearing personality. She's feisty, angry, compassionate, and flawed. Reichs has written a whopping sixteen in the series- so i'm excited to get going... starting from the beginning with no. 1: Deja Dead.

Book Review: Letters from Skye

Dear Reader,

Jessica Brookmole's Letters from Skye is one of those novels that has a little bit for everyone. Sometimes, romance fiction doesn't appeal to everyone but Brockmoles war setting, complicated family relationships and inclusion of definite hints of bromance, made it an all round winning title in my eyes.

Margaret's mother has always kept her past hidden from her, so much so that she has never known who her father is, let alone known him. As the blitz hits London, Margaret begins to dig into Elspeth's secrets, and pieced together by two suitcases of letters, she learns that her mother's life was lived in a whole other war, in a whole other place, with a family she doesn't know, and amongst a relationship between a man called Davey and a woman called Sue.

The fact that the novel is written in letter form gives it a really great period feel. As it skips from letters between Sue and Davey, Margaret and Elspeth, and Margaret and her own man, tension is built and cliff-hangers create great suspense.

Rather than the ending being obvious, with a man and woman clearly being destined for one another, jumping over hurdles for the duration of the novel, our romantic duo seem destined for failure since we receive Elspeth's present day narration, spent as a single mother. For this reason, expectations are controlled and the ending is kept hidden.

Brookmole also does an amazing job of making her characters likeable. As you read, they continue to make several really ethically questionable decisions. Elspeth, in particular, could be incredibly unlikeable, but Brookmole tells her story really well. Few people who will read the novel will have empathy with people living through war-times, and will have an understanding of how difficult it is to be so far apart from the one you love. With social media and mobile phones we're completely apart from Elspeth, who only had these letters, yet i understand her troubles and sympathize with her.

Bringing war-torn lovers into the tenth-first century, Letters of Skye engaged me completely and continually and, clearly, inspired me to write a letter of my own!

Jennifer

Book Review: Mad About The Boy

So i imagine it comes as no surprise that, as a woman, and a Brit, I've purchased the new Helen Fielding and have jumped straight back into the world of my rambunctious, witty heroine favourite. It's a while since Bridget Jones has been on the scene, and a while since a novel has a produced so much interest around its publication date- from the shock sneak peak that has killed off our lawyer lover to the printing mishap that saw Del Boy, Granville and Jack Frost perched in Bridget's living room with cups of tea.

Now I don't think I'm Fielding's target audience, much like with Sex and the City I'm the second generation of reader and the real proof of the author's successes as they propel into the masses. As such, I had no empathy with Bridget's single 30s when I was in my teens and now, have no understanding of her struggles as a mother and a widow. But that's what makes this review all the more interesting, and my epic love of Mrs Jones all the more fascinating.

With the revelation of Mark Darcy's untimely death many readers prematurely concluded that the third novel just wouldn't be the same, and seemed to forget that our love for the story originates with Bridget Jones herself not the men she meets. I fell in love with Bridget for her haphazard thinking, messy lifestyle and confusion, as did Mark and Daniel. As equally gripping men fall for her in this third instalment i've fallen in love with Bridget all over again! 

I found the intended comedy of dealing with twitter nowhere near as funny as Bridget dealing with the other mothers at school in their SUVs and sunglasses, trying to look like Gwyneth Paltrow. Dealing with toyboys and children with hot chocolate down her white coat, a double knotted neck tie and skinny jeans, trying to look like the perfect mother, totally fit the Bridget i grew up with. Of course she still doesn't exercise, of course her mother still criticises her, of course she finds herself dangling from a tree with her thong hanging out. I laughed out loud on multiple occasions, most loudly at -'When he's hot, he's hot; when he's not, he's not. But at least there is always food' and found myself wondering what her kids looked like and who could play her new love interest- or interests? in the film adaptation.

Fielding deals effortlessly with Bridget's new life; she's a good mother and a patient widower. I feel satisfied that Bridget misses Mark and dealt with his death and am beyond happy when she meets new men. Just like before i am taken on a massive journey with her, coming out the other end thinking i know more about Bridget than i do myself.

And for those still holding on to the first 2 novels- don't worry, Daniel Cleaver is still in the picture.

Book Review: Fatherland

Fatherland by Robert Harris

The novel is set in an imagined alternate to WW2 history and it's subject and the idea of Hitler's success is heavy and controversial,-but don't let this put you off!

Xavier March, a criminal investigator working for the  Nazis some thirty years into their success in the war, stumbles upon and seeks to bring to light secret documents that prove the existence of the Holocaust.  Although it's hard to see a reality of death and domination that so nearly came true, Harris' novel continually transmits hopeful messages that the truth will out and justice will be served. The very idea that crimes could go so long undetected is, of course, terrifying, and yet one man's mission to unearth the truth brings back hope to humanity.

Harris' design of Germany is intricate and interesting; the government systems and secrets, statues and processions, along with the upcoming summit with the president of the United States give the novel layers and a thick history that must have taken Harris years to interweave. One of my favourite things, above all, is how Harris, in writing a story of Hitler's success, can so blatantly show his shortcomings as he continues to need the support of other counties and world domination alludes him.

The red of the 20th anniversary edition was what caught my eye in the book shop initially, and i'm glad that the marketing department at Random House made the novel pop from the shelves, or i could have missed a really excellent novel. Seeing evil get it's comeuppance really never gets old, whether 20 years after the book's first publication or 70 years after the war.

Book Review: A Week in December

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks

Switching effortlessly between stories Faulk's bestseller is captivating and quick-witted. Another great train time read because of it's short chapters and constant action it made a great addition to my handbag this week. What's great about the multiple stories is that there's always someone that you can identify with and empathise with, almost as if you're catching up with a friend every couple of days- your lawyer buddy, the ex-classmate, your 2nd cousin the hedge fund manager.

As a Londoner myself i absolutely loved the constant references to icons, transport and issues in the city. The story of Jenny, the tube driver, and her battle with the courts against the family whose son threw himself upon her train in a suicidal bid was fascinating. The psychological marks left on her from the incident and the process she had to go through to carry on with her life have given me a peak at the human consequences of the trains i wait for as they are delayed on the London underground everyday. I think this story alone would have been a significant tale.

I really enjoyed Faulk's writing; i'm usually a fan of heavy action and cliffhangers, which there were few of in the novel but it didn't matter so much. Although there was little suspense, because you become emotionally invested in the characters you feel driven to continue to read. The novel served as a good break from the heart pounding blood pumping over excitement i usually get from my crime faves (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), although i'm not so sure that i'd have been interested if it hadn't pulled on my London heartstrings so much.

Book Binge Recipe Edition

Last week my mum came home from work with the promise of a pile of cooking books, she said something about a book dealer coming into work and her planning to buy some. Well, yesterday was the day, and i went through them, stole my favourites and went ahead and planned my next few meals...

Paul Hollywood's BREAD: How to make great breads into even greater meals by (obviously) Paul Hollywood and published by Bloomsbury.

As we know from my last bake-off post i became impressed by Paul's bread meals when i had some Irish bacon soda bread. I've made it twice since. Having a whole book of filling breads at my disposal i was really excited to go through the recipes, and when i read Paul's note 'this is more than a baking book: it's about the whole meal' i settled into paradise.

To start us off there's a great explanation of baking techniques that is really useful for us amateurs. Maybe it's just me but without a scientific mind no matter how often i bake i never really understand what's going on with the yeast and the flour and the bicarbonate of soda. I really love the basic breads and the exotic ones like wraps, tortillas and pittas, but it's really the ones packed with more substance that i'm really interested in.

The 'Pain de Savoie' looking AMAZING. Not only is it full of lardons like the bacon bread i made before but its also got CHEESE- lots of oozing cheese! Personally i don't think there's enough so i'll probably double the quantity, hopefully that doesn't mess with the science. Plus, the 'Savoury Brioche Couronne' looks like a swirly lunchtime wonder- parmesan, parma ham and buffalo mozzarella distributed throughout the rich dough. I will be making this first. Much more impressive than the official bake-off recipe book, so i'm thinking of getting a Mary Berry to satisfy my sweet tooth as well.





Save with James: Shop Smart Cook Clever Waste Less by Jamie Oliver, published by Penguin

Targeted towards the financially conscious populace (surely that's everyone?) like his money saving 15 and 30 minute meals, Jamie's new recipe book has soo many recipes. With the amount of best-selling cookery books by this guy it's a real wonder he's got any left inside his head.

My favourite thing about the book is the way it's organized. I'm always faced with finding something to eat for dinner working around whatever piece of meat i have available. Chicken recipes, pork, beef, lamb and fish i can just skip to the relevant category when i've got my meat in mind. Even better is the veg section, which helps me out with the main problem i have - forgetting to buy or get out of the freezer any meat at all. In particular the 4 fantastic ways of making a simple tomato pasta really help with this. I know that Italian restaurants just use store cupboard ingredients for most of their pasta dishes and now i can whip up the Arrabbiata or Puttanesca with the contents of mine.

The sweet potato and spinach frittata looks really nice, chicken and spinach cannelloni and the bbq ribs and pork belly are just up my street. The only negative observation is probably the timings, it seems that Jamie used all his quicker recipes for his previous books and most of these are 1-2 hour jobs. Bit much after work. And his wife Jules' recipe at the end- feeling neglected much? I thought Jamie was the chef.

All in all a pretty good haul. I love books, but when they are great reads and also provide inventive snacks the world always seems like a better place. I've had a bit of a disaster week so i'm taking Mr Hollywood and Mr Oliver and heading to the bedroom, erm i mean... the kitchen.

Book Review: Restless

Family espionage in Boyd's page-turner.

Painting itself as a spy-story dusted with the complications of family allegiance William Boyd's Restless drew me in from the blurb. However, the 'final mission' we are told to be the action of the plot is in fact only a small portion of the story and Ruth and Eva's mother-daughter relationship is more complicated and enthralling than the spies.

As a reader we are allied with Ruth, who knows nothing more of her mother's past than we do. Ruth and Eva are not a team, and at no point is Ruth complicit with her mother's actions, being continually surprised by her unusual actions and history. As Eva gives her daughter chapter's of her biography to read Ruth learns of her mother's duplicity; does she even know her mother at all? How can she trust her now she knows that she is a spy? The reader gets taken on this journey with Ruth and i felt a genuine empathy with her situation, and the process to which she comes to terms with it is rational and believable.

Still strikingly fascinating to read was Eva's past life as a spy, Boyd gives such incredible detail to the espionage, the mission's significance to WW2 and to the processes Eva has to follow as a spy. He interweaves the kind of secret service war operation that we a think and want to exist. Everyone wants to believe there's a real Bond out there and Boyd's writing is intricate enough for me to believe it could be real.

I ended up reading this book in about 5 hours because i couldn't put it down. Before i went to bed and when i got up in the morning. The switching between Eva's biography and Ruth's reading of it stopped the plot from getting lack-lustre and made it one of those books that's perfect for reading on the tube; short chapters and constant cliff-hangers. There were points of romance (but not too much) and familial obligation that centred the out of this world spy plot in reality, which can sometimes be lacking in crime-thrillers that are too insane to be believed. A definite bed-time or tube-read recommendation.

Book Binge Smiths Edition

I often get an urge to read that doesn't come from a specific book and spend forever in book shops finding the perfect story to satisfy my mind. Just last week i was perusing Whsmiths online and found something i'd never even heard of before that just happens to solve my problem at a minimal cost.

I spotted it out of the corner of my eye- 'Great Book Bundles'; Smiths will put together a random selection of 10 books of a particular genre and deliver them to your house. Now you might be thinking that you'd rather pick your books yourself but these ones cost £12.99 FOR 10 BOOKS. That's £1.29 per book. Heaven. But what are they going to send me?

There are bundles for children, bundles of specific authors such as Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Jacqueline Wilson, non-fiction bundles on cookery, travel writing and advice, fiction genres like histories, mysteries, classics, romances and fantasy. As a crime and thriller lover i passed over this option, figuring i probably owned many of the books they might send. I went for the bestselling fiction because i thought they would probably be from the last few years and therefore the things i've missed whilst studying the classics at University.

Inevitably the package arrived whilst i was out (i love you smiths but most delivery services do estimate delivery times and i definitely could have been there had i known) so i ran off to collect it from the depo this morning. Carrying it home was desperately annoying since i wanted to know what was inside but needed to take a picture of it before i opened it. Oh the perils of blogging. Anyway, i was really pleased with the results, i had heard of a few, new most of the authors and even got some very expensive books i'd missed out on last year...

Top to Bottom:
My Favourite Wife by Tony Parsons, RRP £6.99

Parsons is a best selling author and this particular book, published in 2008, was intended to be much the same. Although it doesn't have rave reviews online and it's not one of the ones i've heard of it does have a few of the themes that i personally like in my reading. Parsons tells the story of the ups and downs of a family from London living and leaving Shanghai and dealing with having to find work in another city.  An issue many of us traveller types consider, i might be getting some advice here that will help me if i find myself in a similar situation.

Jail Bird by Jessie Keane, £7.99

Keane is the author of the bestselling series featuring fictional Annie Bailey, and this particular novel sees Keane move away from this character and into a new story. I'm pleased not to have been sent a Bailey story, since i haven't read the others, and if i like Keane's writing style i'll definitely be exploring her most popular writes.

The Job by Douglas Kennedy, £8.99

The blurb of this novel intrigues me! 'His wife is threatening to leave him and his new job description includes fraud, embezzlement and murder'. Juicy. Seems i may have a hint of my favourite crime genre in this romance filled thriller.

This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes, £7.99

A bit of an ambitious title to start with, this might actually be the first book in the pack i read. Homes' protagonist Novak's life is saved when his boring healthy lifestyle is infiltrated by a doughnut-shop owner. Blending my love of books and baking Homes won't have to convince me that baked goods can save someones life, but i'll have to make sure the biscuits are stocked while i read it.

The First Casualty by Ben Elton, £7.99

Someone in my family definitely owns this bestseller, but fortunately i haven't read it. Elton is a prolific crime writer and i have a particular love of war fiction since studying some at Uni. As his 10th novel, it's sometimes scary to let yourself fall in love with a writer who you know is going to take up a LOT of your time.

Factotum by Charles Bukowski, £8.99

Peppered with black humour this novel strikes me as a bit depressing. I'm not such a fan of books without action but with little over 150 pages it's not such a problem here. An unknown writer i thought fiction like this would come into the bundle, but i'm glad it's just the one and i'll definitely still read it.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, £7.99

I just laughed when i saw this book. It's pretty much the reason i didn't go for the crime and thriller bundle. Although i'm not surprised, since its beyond bestseller fiction, if you check the banner at the top of my blog you'll see i already own the hardback and paperback of this book! Neverthheless, it is impressive that it's included in the bundle- only out last year, one of the top books of that year, and in my opinion totally excellent, i didn't think i could buy it so early for such a cheap price. I suppose i could read it again!

Restless by William Boyd, £7.99

A spy novel! This book sounds delicious. Women spies, secret service ops and one final assignment. Why haven't i already read this book?

The Final Testament by James Frey, £8.99

The blurb here leaves the story a bit of an enigma but a quick internet search reveals great reviews. The imagining of modern Jesus Christ i'm sure many readers would find the content controversial, but i had a taste of blasphemous fiction when i read Paradise Lost. Intrigued by the prospect of the story i'll try to keep my Miltonic expectations to a minimum.

A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks, £7.99

The number one bestseller this book is a another steal for me from the bundle! Piecing together the lives of several characters in London i can see this might really speak to me as a Londoner all my life. I love it when writers manage to interweave stories and i'm interested to see how Faulks does this and how many of the characters i can empathise with in modern urban life.

Well, i think that's pretty impressive. With authors like Dan Brown, Ben Elton, Jessie Keane and Douglas Kennedy, some novels being published as recently as 2011 and at £1.29 a pop the bundle really is brilliant. Bringing to my attention several books i'm really excited to read and might not have found searching around shops i'd also say that this has provided the much needed inspiration that fulfils my fiction urge from earlier in the week. A brilliant idea from Smiths at an even better price. Next time i'm getting the travel-writing bundle.

Indian Easter

With all the talk about Britain's current Indian Summer providing some of the best weather in years i was reminded that i'd yet to write an post on my family holiday to India back in April.
For me it was a bit of an unusual holiday. When i was a kid we went to Alastair Sawday's special places, usually in Greece, often reduced to sunbathing and light sight-seeing since me and my sister (as teenage girls) would complain about needing a tan (sorry Mum). Now i holiday from my family separately, and always plan trips myself that involve beaches, cute towns, adventure and attractions; i thrive in the planning process and find it so exciting looking up holiday options to make the most out of the time. Point is, India was our first family trip in years, there was to be no beaches, limited pool time, continual early mornings and everything organised by a third party! What could go wrong!

The trip provider was Riviera Travel (click for a link to the full itinerary) and they did a spectacular job of finding some great sights that i'm glad i got to see. Places like Ranthambore safari park (although we didn't spot any Tigers), Fatehpur Sikri, staying up in the Himalayas and getting to the Taj Mahal early in the morning to miss the masses, passport in hand (which i would never had known i would need to attend).

India is huge and we barely saw a quarter of it but the places we did see were a great mix of city and country. Our tour-operator was an English lady who was incredibly friendly and helpful throughout, going as far as to arrange for us to see Elephants because it was my sister's personal mission on the holiday. Our tour-guide had fascinating insights into Indian culture; from his opinions on the evident poverty and jokes on the road to his personal story of his parents several attempts at arranging his marriage. India is a Smörgåsbord of colour and fascinating people where you spend most of your time turning your head to take photos of scenes you can barely believe. Historical sights are so lavish it's hard to believe the poverty that tends to wait outside them; although it can be daunting and upsetting at times it's comforting to know that the tourism industry you are funding continues to help those who remain residential to the country. Our tour guides brought street sellers on to the coach to sell us hand made crafts and souvenirs, bridging the gap between them and us where alone we would be confronted and discouraged by their pushy sales techniques. 

The food in the high quality hotels we stayed in was always incredible! I particularly remember the restaurant in the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi bringing out a lavish portable burner to our table and firing up some fresh breads to accompany our spread of delicacies.

Normally, i'm not a massive fan of tours because i like to take charge and change my plans to suit my mood; in my experience, whilst travelling, things never go to plan and it's better to bend to their will. Things were sometimes strained by this, and at times the child inside my sister just wanted to sunbathe and we resented the early mornings and the fact that we were both the youngest on the trip by about 40 years. Having said this, from being around the country i got the impression that India isn't as well equipped for tourists and travellers as other countries. I rarely saw hostels that looked hygienic or cheap food outlets that wouldn't have you spending the evening in the bathroom. Sleeping safely and eating hygienically was worth sacrificing some of my curiosity to walk aimlessly and natural independence.
Something about the insistent sellers and lack of tourist outlets makes me feel like expensive tours and organised trips are the only way to maximise what you see, unless the more prominent, richer cities like Bombay and Mumbai (which i didn't go to) are more tourist friendly. Fortunately, there are several other tour options that might cater to younger people with small budgets, places like Black Tomato and STA.

Whichever way you do it ready yourself for incredible food and relentless exasperation for an unforgettable experience in more ways than one. I'm hoping that India will become more accessible to tourists in a few years, something that usually comes with the experience of how to deal with us westerners. A little less staring would be great at the very least (people actually wanted to photograph ME more than the TAJ MAHAL) and i'll definitely return with my backpack and friends. My parents, on the other hand, have already booked a second trip to Kerala in southern India. I'll try to keep my envy to a minimum.

Hollywood Bread

After the disaster of my macaroon cake i thought it best to try out another recipe in the Great British Bake Off's recipe guide. I thought it was going to be a really great cookery book and wanted to get rid of the feeling that it had failed me in the baking world!

This time i went for a recipe with Paul Hollywood's name and reputation slapped all over it: Crunchy Bacon Soda Bread. I love the idea that bread can be a full meal, and with bacon, parsley and onion in it, and slathered with butter, this is the perfect thing for lunch.

Bread is notoriously difficult, as is Mr Hollywood to please in the bake-off since the use of yeast is a tricky art, so in his words:

"Welcome to Yeast"

The recipe for this bread is uneblieveably easy! 

Step 1: Fry the bacon, onion and parsley

Step 2: Sieve flour, bicarb and salt, rub into breadcrumbs with butter

Step 3: Mix altogether with buttermilk, shape into a ball (NO KNEADING NEEDED, which i LOVE)

Step 4: Bake for just 35 minutes.

The outcome was a really nice lunch loaf, perfect with butter. I would rather add about 3 times the amount of bacon- because i do love bacon- to make a meatier, more substantial bread. Nevertheless is was surprised that such a luxurious sounding bread was so quick and easy to make and i'll definitely make it a regular. Thank god Paul pulled it out for the cookbook. Next i'll be doing the recipe for chocolate doughnuts!

Thailand's Top Tours #3: Full Moon Party or Glass Half Empty?

Reviews of Koh Phangan's famous Full Moon Parties usually come in two extremes- wild youths promoting the crazy atmosphere or concerned elders pin pointing the excessive danger of drugs and crime.
Let's put me into perspective here- i'm 22, went this year with a boyfriend and a friend, and despite loving a good night out, lots of drinks, bars and conversation, i don't like raves or clubs just because i usually lose everyone and things always get too caught up in drugs. Not my cup of tea. But the full moon party has an original reputation for bringing different people together, it's supposed to have fire dancers and fun drinks, hippies and travellers, and i thought that sort of vibe might really be something i'd regret missing out on.

We stayed half-way across the island, so grabbed a shuttle service to Haad Rin beach with a few other people from the hotel who were equally excited to see what it was all about. As we were dropped off we could finally see the hoards of people heading to the beach, everyone was dressed appropriately, by that i mean not really wearing anything at all but florescent paint and drunken smiles and it really was an exciting atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the further towards the beach we got the more things i started to recognise as the resemblance to European beaches became strikingly obvious. Gone were the amazing Asian dishes, clusters of tourists sitting around drinking and chatting, fire dancers amazing audiences and market stalls with hand-made Thai souvenirs like there had been on Koh Samui, Koh Tao, in sections of Bangkok and Chang Mai. Haad Rin was overrun with idiotic British revellers running around flailing their arms and shouting out offensive English chants like they're at a football game. The street littered in, well, litter, sick, lost property, glowsticks, fish and chips and pizzas. It could have been a strip in Magaluf, Zante or Benedorm. Local people were reduced to selling these horrendous buckets and the beach itself was packed- i mean, it was like sheep being herded into a really small field. Like fitting 100 people in a 2 bed flat. People were either mindlessly dancing and kissing random people or passed out on the floor.

Having fun guys?

I remember when i used to go to Reading festival every year as a teenage. It's just my kind of music and hanging out with a group of friends with absolute freedom was like a dream. Then, in 2010 i was no longer enjoying the atmosphere because the average age of attendee was lowering and lowering. I felt like i was surrounded by people who didn't want to watch the music, discover new bands and chill with their friends, they wanted to burn their tents, run around peeing everywhere, stealing wellies and getting high. They needent have payed for a ticket and stayed in their own back yard. And this is what i think has happened to Koh Phangan. With the mass attention the party got, and the ease of access getting worse by the minute as airports and services grow, it started to attract people uninterested in the experience that full moon originally intended. Hotels on the island have 4 day minimum stays- prelonging everyone's hangovers and making it compulsory to see the wasteland left by the world post-party.

I struggle with discouraging anyone from going anywhere, since experiences are often completely individual. I don't necessarily agree with advice that says that the island is dangerous, one teen being killed last year is hardly reason to damn the entire place. I didn't find any glass on the floor- but i was smart enough to wear converses, and i didn't hear of anyone drowning in the sea. But put it this way, if you describe yourself as i did above, and if your after what the party was like 20 years previous, your better off staying clear and can feel confident you haven't missed out on anything. If you are with a massive group of people, and you get drunk before you go i reckon that beer-goggles may trick you into having a good time, and you can pretend that the party is at it's peak, but in my opinion the glass is half empty for Koh Phangan and its totally past its sell by date.

MORE Macaroons

Having failed at the macaroon cake, and continually passing it in the kitchen with misery and regret, i decided to whip up some classic macaroons for pudding.
Whenever i make macaroons i pretty much always use a different recipe. The first ones i made equated the decadent outcome with complicated instructions where i had to add heated sugar syrup to meringue. I never found that doing that made the macaroons better, and simpler recipes made lighter, chewier cookies. I have found that sieving all the ingrediants makes the macaroons look better and taste lighter. I've also spent hours trying to recreate the vanilla filling inside macaroons from Paul's bakery; finally settling with a classic vanilla buttercream with butter, icing sugar and a drop of vanilla extract (not essence).

I found this particular recipe searching on google and it's from Gabriella's blog 'Thyme & Honey'. It's a nice sieve and whisk recipe and made chewy, light macaroons despite caking my kitchen in icing sugar.

I used Gabriella's chocolate and coffee icing for a 3rd of the cookies, my own vanilla buttercream for another 3rd and chocolate ganache (dark chocolate melted with boiled cream) for the last. They all look amazing as you can see...

They also didn't take as much time as you would expect, it's the resting time in the middle that gives the cookies the chewy skin (sounds a bit gross i know) and makes it seem to be a laborious process. They really shouldn't be so expensive. My boyfriend recently bought me an amazing box from Ladurée, which are an incredibly expensive bakery based in Harrods. 

Amazing as the gesture was, i would say that Gabriella's cookies are better, and consequently i guess so are mine.

Macaroon Mayhem

I love food blog posts with cakes and bakes that their writers claim are easy peasy, look incredible and taste amazing, but i've kind of got the opposite.

Following the recipe precisely i made the Macaroon Cake from GBBO's new cookbook, thinking i would end up with an extravagant show stopper fit for the show itself. Unfortunately, the whole thing was a little bit off- quantities, flavours and the instructions with a final product that i'll probably be throwing away.

Macaroon mixtures need to be smooth to make an aesthetically pleasing french cookie, which is why i was surprised to find desiccated coconut and flaked almond's in the recipe for these, along with no sign of a sieve to sort the rest of the ingredients. The macaroon's tasted great at the end, with the extra flavour of coconut, but they look pretty hideous- evidence below.

The cake itself is just a plain vanilla sponge, which could probably do with some cream or vanilla ganache in the middle to make it interesting. Plus, the layer of macaroon that you put on top of the sponge half way through baking stops the sponge from being able to bake entirely.

I think you can make a much better 'macaroon cake' by combining a good cake recipe with a cluster of classically made macaroons of your favourite flavour on top to make it show stopping! I hope this recipe is the brain child of the editors of the book and not Mary Berry or Paul Hollywood themselves, because if so i think they'd be very disappointed.

Plantain Tacos and Churros y Chocolate

I had a plethora of gorgeous street food at Wahaca, one of my favourite restaurants on friday night. I just couldn't help but share these scrummy snaps! Plantain Tacos with a spicy sauce, Black Bean Tostadas, Chicken Taquitos and Churros!

Founder of Wahaca, Thomasina Miers, has a fab recipe book that makes it seem easy-as-pie to recreate her restaurant experience in the comfort of your own home. It's got a great guac recipe and a steak fajita, and i love that she infuses these basic Mexican classics with some less than normal ideas like Frijoles refritos (a must addition to most meals in South America).

I did once try to make tortillas as Thomasina claims to have created 'a blissfully easy recipe.' I ended up with a mess of sludgy pancake mix, and nothing that could hold together meat and salsa. The masa harina and fine cornmeal were exceptionally hard to find, and although i found them in a specialist store, they made no difference to the disastrous end product.

A good way of classying up a fajita night, these recipes probably won't replace wahaca for an amazing Mexican meal- but that's probably what Thomasina intended!

Book Binge

I know that fashion and beauty blogs do 'shopping haul' posts showing off their latest high-street sprees, purchases and bargains. Much like them, i too went shopping today but the most exciting thing (for me) are the new additions to my bookcase. :DDD

The Great British Bake-Off Everyday: 100 Foolproof Recipes. £13 down from £20.

8pm on a Tuesday Night is my favourite time of the week. It means inspiration, giggling uncontrollably and empathising with bakers sitting next to their ovens like crazy housewives. I love to bake and GBBO gives me great new ideas, my cakes never come out as perfect and my kitchen is always a mess but anyone who knows me knows that baking is like breathing to me. My baking inspiration used to be my nan and her antique cupboard filled with intricate icing flowers, but now inspiration strikes religiously every Tuesday. The show's presenters are hilarious -Sue accidentally elbowing someone's muffins last week was priceless- and i'm glad that the rest of the world can now see how much fun it is to get covered in flour. This recipe book is the 3rd or 4th in my collection (i'll definitely be stealing some of my mums when i move out) and the Macaroon cake inside is first on my list to try!

Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. £7.99.

I wanted to buy this book when it originally came out but i was studying at the time and my reading list was stocked with classics and secondary sources for my dissertation! According to the blurb Harold Fry  unwittingly embarks on a journey across country 'to save someone else's life' and that image struck a chord with me. Harold Fry just sounds like my dad- a sweet little old man- and it's nice to already have a person in mind. A Sunday Times Bestseller and much hyped up by my own brain i hope i'm not disappointed. Especially considering Rachel's got a new novel out- 'Perfect'.

John Williams, Stoner. £1 down from £8.99 with the 'Buy 1 Get 1 for £1' Offer.

'The greatest novel you've ever read' Vintage have been tweeting about Stoner all week. A special podcast and constant retweets of recommendations and i was sold... what is this book and where can i get it? Ashamedly i haven't heard of John Williams nor his novels, and it's weird that a classic is having such a revival- and on Twitter nonetheless. I'm usually a fan of fast paced action but i'll make an exception, i'm still a literary fiend and made my way through Joyce's Ulysses last year so i'm looking forward to immersing myself in Stoner's world this week.

Thailand's Top Tours #2: My Favourite Beach

There are some pretty amazing beaches in Thailand, it's half the reason (if not all) that people have made it such as huge travel destination in the past couple of years. On each island there tends to be a most popular beach- Chaweng Beach in Koh Samui, Haad Rin in Koh Phangan (home to the famous full moon party), Sairee Beach in Koh Tao and Long Beach in Koh Phi Phi. However, i found that the best beach label attracts so many people that the beach loses its sparkle. The sand gets littered, the water gets cluttered with boats and boards and the stretch becomes too full of outlets. Chaweng Beach is a perfect example: the water is shallow, rocky and full of speedboats and the sand is covered in loungers and sellers. All up for the hustle and bustle for the most part i eventually went searching for a bit of idyllic peace...

Maenam Beach in Koh Samui doesn't get a massive write up, it's close to the pier which never sounds idyllic and just off from the airport that hardly promises peace. But this beach is magnificent- just look at the picture below.

There are a few restaurants and some family targeted bungalows, a couple of sellers who wander up and down the beach with the usual corn and mango, and a solo boat floating on the waves. The sea is a gorgeous blue, deep enough to swim (amazing after shallow Chaweng) and there's no litter in sight! The sand has those small grains that you find in your bikini when you shower and let you know that you're truly on holiday and not just in rocky Brighton! Best of all is the peace. I went on holiday looking to relax in the day and go out at night but that becomes difficult in the hotstops of Thailand. Finding a sweet spot like Maenam was a dream and i wish we had time to go there more than once.

Maenam beach is a half an hour scooter ride from the hustle and bustle on the other side of the island, it reminds me of the places my parents used to take me from 'Alastair Sawday's Special Places to Stay' when i was a kid. Good company, a page turner and some cash to grab a Thai curry at one of the bungalows is all you need. Hopefully it will stay somewhat untouched and remain blissfully unaware of the party scene next door.

ReConsidering Cambridge

Out of a combination of a day off, a visitor to show around and bad weather elsewhere i ended up in Cambridge on the weekend. Apparently i had been there as a kid- an excursion on our yearly holidays on a river boat- but i couldn't remember a thing!

Since it was sunny i expected to have serious transport problems but unlike Brighton and Blackpool, which are obvious destinations, the trains weren't packed and the town centre not too jammed. Having said that, we did miss the train from London Liverpool Street and then boarded one to Southend costing us about 2hours on our journey because we had to backtrack and start again. The journey took about 4 hours instead of 2! Not my finest hour. We arrived starving and dashed to a pub recommended by my dad (who is a walking talking good pub guide for England and Wales) called The EAGLE. Huge yorkshire puddings, pork and apple sauce and great roasties went down a treat with a bottle of cider. The pub is really sweet, traditional and clearly massively popular, but there are a lot of seats so it's not a massive problem. Roasts were about £8 which is also pretty good.

Walking around the town could be done in a couple of hours. It's a pretty small area and the best things to see are compacted around the river and the town centre. Plus, many of the historical sights are university property so they're out of bounds. Once again i didn't visit the churches (gargoyles screeching per my other blog post) but i did see that the staff were incredible pretentious- shouting at visitors for walking on the grass and walking the wrong way around the church. Not exactly tourist-friendly.

We spent the day wondering around, stopping to eat and watching the punting. I just spent most of the day hoping to see someone fall in the river; either the over arrogant boyfriends trying to show off or the Cambridge students whose hair could probably do with a good wash in the water. Competition between punters (is that what they're called?) bordered on annoying as we were asked if we were punting today about a million times. I'm always an advocate of letting your customers come to you.

Unlike the food, stores were overpriced and i ended up paying £10 for 2 boxes of Pop Tarts at Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. But i'd never seen cookie dough and chocolate fudge flavours before and i couldn't resist- plus, it's hard to not spend irresponsible when you digress into a kid surrounded by candy canes and lolly pops.

The nicest thing about having a visitor to show around your home and country is that you end up motivated to see things that you wouldn't normally feel bothered about. When you think about a weekend break or day out you may not think about Cambridge, but it turned out to be a classy historical town with more than restricted churches to offer. Interest in the University is not the only prerequisite to a visit, you just need a love of poptarts and roast dinners.

Thailand's Top Tours. #1

When you return from your travels people always ask 'how was it?' 'tell me everything,' 'what was the best bit?' and it's easy to be lost for what to say. How can you put into words the things you saw and did? How can you choose the best experience when it was just the feeling of escape that triumphed all? Well, to make a start of compiled a list of the best things i did in Thailand, expelling a few myths about what make it so famous and recommending some particular companies that i believe were head and shoulders above the rest.

Elephant whispering: Baan Chang Elephant Park

Seeing, riding, feeding and bathing elephants is probably the most popular excursion in Asia and can be a spectacular experience. However, many (probably most) elephant 'sanctuaries' can actually leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth; worrying about the health and well-being of the animals and guilty for helping to finance this. I met many travellers who had bad experiences with companies and it seemed the norm rather than the exception (in the words of Gigi from He's Just Not That Into You). One girl i met had apparently been chased down a river by a wild elephant as her non-english-speaking guide tried to face it off. As a result i researched long and hard to find a great place to go and ended up at Baan Chang Elephant Park in Chang Mai, which had excellent write ups from TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet.

I booked the excursion online with only 48 hours notice but the company emailed me back quickly and they arranged to pick me and my friend up from our hotel for the trip. There was a group of 7 of us on the day, and we promptly changed into our gear and covered our cameras in waterproofs when we got there. The staff were really friendly and informative about the origins and nature of the elephants and firm about the fact that they were rescued and we had to be careful around the ones who had obviously been traumatised. I felt totally at ease that the staff had the elephants best interests at heart and that this was a genuine sanctuary.

When i was in India our tour guide arranged for us to drop by where the elephants are kept at one of the sites where they provide rides, but seeing them painted and needing to be supervised just to be near them wasn't the best experience. Here we got to feed them as they all hung out in an outdoor area; there were several staff cluttered around cleaning them and checking we were all being sensible (i.e. not sticking our hands in the elephants mouths). Yes they were chained but they explained that this was because elephants naturally fight.

After this we had some instruction from the mahouts about how to ride and instruct the elephants. A mahout is described as 'a person who rides an elephant' online, but there they were described as the elephant's best friend. When one sat atop his mate and dropped his sandal the elephant casually picked it up and slotted it back onto his foot. Immense. Certain words shouted with enough conviction got the elephant to sit down so we could sit on it, turn left and right, move off and stop. Each word came with a gesture, squeezing your thighs or touching their ears, but none of them could hurt the animals even if you did so too hard. The best feeling is riding atop an elephant, nervous as anything and higher up than you thought, shouting out a word and feeling the elephant stop in its tracks- reacting to your instruction. Surreal. 

The excursion comes with lunch and drinks, and some cute hammocks to rest in, which came next, and then we got to put our new found tricks into practice and rode the elephants bareback through the jungle. Scary, incredible and once in a lifetime. We washed them in the river at the end, used their showers and jumped back in the vans to head back to the hotel.

If you've never seen an elephant before it's easy to take the first opportunity in Thailand and not do enough research around the company. Seeing them in the flesh can be breathtaking, but its worth not ruining it with questions in the back of your head. Do the animals get hurt? Shouldn't they be in the wild? Baan Chang answers all of these and makes this experience more authentic and magical. I worried that no sanctuary would truly care about the animals, given the fact that the animals have been used for economic benefit for so many years, so seeing the amazing relationship that the staff had with them was unexpected and incredible. Definitely Top Tour #1.

Notes, Pads, Books and Logs.

Most people who read a lot as a kid end up developing some sort of strange obsession with stationary; whether it's getting a new pencil case every year or stock piling highlighters. For me, notebooks are a vice- i still get them as Christmas presents, always take advantage of offers in Smiths and had about hundred diaries when i was a kid. I always try to get a notebooks when i go away, i've got a gorgeous craft paper pad from India that feels like papyrus (i'm too scared to write on it) and a thick sleeve book with removable inserts from Malaga that i use for quick notes.

Some i use for recipes, others for University, one was for my dissertation and a couple for job applications and internships. The biggest use for them is for travel; buy one in one place and write in it at the next. I have a pretty bad memory so i always write down all the places i've been too, the restaurant names, city names, excursions and dates. Without my notebooks i would be lost!

For this very reason i sometimes think i should have been raised hundreds of years ago, dipping ink and writing on scrolls. I stare longingly at the kids in Harry Potter who for some reason haven't quite found pens, paper and computers- and yet the dementors manage to destroy the Millennium Bridge in the Half Blood Prince. I've tried writing my notes on word, compiling recipes with internet bookmarks, 'Notes' for IPad, NotesTab for my mac and computer stickies, but it's just not the same. No matter how far technology reaches i'll still be keeping my notebooks and buying new ones every year :). You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Travel advice on a shoestring.

So when i travelled around Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia) i required a travel book. Firstly, for the advice that i obviously needed and secondly, because i just wouldn't feel right without one. Lonely Planet's guide was perfect because i didn't want to pay for five individual books and it covered all the above countries, a feat that itself was hard to find. However, this very fact and several of the other benefits of the guide came with massive downsides and i'm ashamed to admit it became more of a bulky burden than a saving grace.

Although the guide included all the countries i was going to, and one extra that was added on at the end, it still contained five countries i wasn't; not to mention the many cities i didn't go to within the countries i did. I carried nearly 1000 pages around with me for 2 months and 350 of them were never relevant. This is normal of travel guides, but 35% irrelevance is a massive stake.

There are many amazing cities in Southeast Asia and i would never want to be discouraged from visiting any of them, but i began to feel like the authors of the guide had no real opinions and preferences. Every city was 'the most captivating', 'most atmospheric', every beach the 'most popular back-packer stop', 'favourite back-packer idyll'. A lot of the comments in the guide were just massively generalised and offered no help at all when deciding between destinations. 'Whatever your flavour, no matter your taste, it's all here in Phnom Penh' was the silliest comment of them all because i didn't even end up liking it there.

But most annoying of all were the countless restaurants i looked for that i couldn't find. Whether the information was outdated or my navigation skills not up to scratch, it's probably better to recommend restaurants that are a little easier to get to. 

Being an avid advocate of paperbacks, and one of those people who loves the smell and feel of physical copies i really hate the fact that i spent more time on my IPad researching hotels and destinations than i did with my nose in this book. Southeast Asia didn't end up being on a shoestring, but this book certainly was; fragmentary information, outdated restaurants and yet still the heaviest thing in my backpack. 

However, this post isn't all criticism because i understand that this guide would be perfect for people with more time to explore each place, and more time to hit up every country. A great idea would be to develop a paper guide created for backpackers travelling for a few months. Removable sections (for when you know your not going to every country) and more specific information that really labels each city for a particular type of traveller, because travel writers should be honest that not every place is for every taste and flavour.